Dying Stars
by WildNoa13474
Summary: Manhattan is still recovering from an alien invasion, and SHIELD is already dealing with another unknown. A teenage boy that calls himself Alcor. Transcendence AU. Rated T for possible violence.
1. Prologue

Director Nicolas Fury looked speculatively at one of his best agents, who was sitting on the other side of his desk. "Your thoughts, Agent Romanoff?"

Natasha seemed to mull it over for a second. Finally, she looked her boss in the eyes, fixing her serious eyes onto his.

"People break a million times over the course of a lifetime, Director. Most people get fixed again by someone they love. And then there's the people who are broken over and over again. By now, Loki's in so many pieces I doubt anything short of a miracle can glue him back together again."

Fury displays no outward emotion, though Natasha thought she saw a spark of something resembling regret in his single eye. "Not recoverable, then. We'll leave him to the justice of Asgard, whatever the fuck that entails. The other?"

Natasha allows a grimace at that question, although she quickly recovers her neutral expression. "The mutant boy is either older than he appears or a sociopath. I can't read him as well as I should be able to, and he shows no expression but boredom and impatience. I can tell it's not a front, either. He's answering all out questions so far, although I suspect he is lying because there are no matching records, which supports the sociopath theory."

Fury leans forward from where he was lounging in his desk chair, interested. "Can we use him?"

"Probably." Natasha answered instantly. "Although his trustworthiness is debatable, and he's young enough that Charles Xavier might make a fuss."

"Charles Xavier doesn't have to know." Fury said leaning back again, a vaguely smug air about him.


	2. Take A Break

**A/N Okay, just to be clear, this was completely unplanned. I was writing a character assessment of Loki, just for reference, and somehow that turned into a Gravity Falls Transcendence/Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover prologue.**

 **Although I categorized it under Avengers, cause that's where the main focus is, I think. I just came up with all of this ten minutes ago, so don't be surprised if all my plans go completely out the window in ten more minutes or so.**

 **Btw, Dipper doesn't know SHIELD is an abbreviation yet, so when I'm writing it from his perspective it's written as Shield and not SHIELD.**

In a cell just about right underneath the two spies, a teenager sat on the hard cold floor against the wall, bored out of his mind.

Of all the places to end up in when he went dimension hopping, this one really took the cake. Dipper certainly wasn't expecting to land in a high security... whatever this was, or to, after a moment of confusion, be rushed and locked in 'anti-mutant' chains as these people called them. He could've killed them all, of course, but they didn't seem overly malicious, and besides he was on break for a reason.

At least this dimension was better than the previous one. Dipper shuddered at the memory; it had been a wrathful world of hate and fear, where no one could trust even the closest loved ones.. He'd been glad to get out. Even if that meant the humans here seeing his rather flashy entrance.

Apparently the people here- Dipper really needed a name for them- thought he was something called a mutant, who had purposefully broken into this annoyingly metal contraption. Really, who would want to work here? It was plain steel from what he'd seen, no decoration or plants anywhere. How boring.

Anyway, it might be best that he was in human disguise when he exited that glorified rip in the fabric of reality, going by how those people reacted to his entrance. Apparently this was a dimension without many portals.

He was still debating just getting out of here and finding something to do, cause there didn't seem to be much happening here after that small interview a few hours ago, when the door to his windowless cell actually slid open. Dipper perked up and observed the people who walked in.

In the front was a dark skinned man with a confident and demanding posture and an eyepatch. This man was used to being obeyed, Dipper immediately knew, which either meant he was arrogant and spoiled or had been an authority figure for a long time, which would mean that he was pretty good for the position.

Slinking in behind the man was the redhead that had come to interrogate him not too long ago. He'd answered her questions to some extent of truthfulness, waiting to see where she would take it, even while he winced knowing Mabel wouldn't approve of lying like that.

And just with that, his thoughts took a darker turn. He'd been lying for some time now, because although he tried to be as honest as possible he was still a demon and it was in his nature now to twist his words to his own benefit. But it was an especially sore point right now.

Mabel's death, after all, was why he decided to take a vacation. She lived long and happily, he'd made sure of that, and her soul had reincarnated, he had felt it. But he still lost his twin sister, he lost Mabel, and Molly couldn't and wouldn't ever be a replacement for her.

He would come back to his own universe, eventually. But for now he turned his attention to the two standing before him.

Eyepatch appraised him in a way that made Dipper feel like a piece of meat ready to be sold. He shifted uncomfortably, hoping none of his emotions were visible on his face. Mabel always said... Mabel had always said he was an open book, but that was an exaggeration, right?

He tried for a smile, since that should reassure most humans, he remembered. The man looked taken aback for a brief moment, or maybe slightly alarmed, and Dipper quickly dropped the smile. Was he not supposed to be smiling right now?

He was still wondering about humans and their weird smiling habits when Eyepatch- who was really named Nicolas Fury, but Dipper found Eyepatch more fitting- finally spoke up. "So, Alcor, huh?"

Dipper perked up, glad that something was happening. "Yup. What is this place?"

It was a giant metal flying ship called a Helicarrier floating somewhere above the ocean, but Dipper was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to know that. You know, as human.

Eyepatch looked like he was considering the question, which made Dipper feel slightly incredulous. What, did he actually not know where they were? He was this place's Director, which probably meant he should know.

"You're in Shield Headquarters." The guy finally seemed to decide. The man didn't seem like he was going to say anything else, so Dipper blinked and asked, "What, am I supposed to know where that is?"

No, you're not." Eyepatch deadpanned." If you did, you'd already be dead."

Dipper snorted at that. He forgot how amusing humans could be. Eyepatch glared at him in response. "Something funny?"

Oh. So he wasn't supposed to laugh. Oh well. "No, Sir," he answered, but couldn't keep a grin off his face. Eyepatch looked a little unnerved for some reason.

The redhead at the back of the cell, Natasha Romanoff, hadn't said anything yet, Dipper noticed suddenly.

"Well, Alcor." Alcor turned his attention back to Eyepatch, tilting his head inquisitively. "From what you've told us, you weren't the one that opened the portal." Dipper quickly nodded, hoping the other wasn't about to accuse him of lying. Which he totally was, but that was beside the point. "Can you tell me who did, then?"

Slightly relieved, Dipper shrugged. "I didn't see anyone. I just... had to get away. So I walked in." He did his best to look afraid and unsure, and Romanoff and Eyepatch exchanged glances.

He half expected them to ask from what he walked away from, but instead Eyepatch just nodded and walked out of the cell, the redhead following. The door closed behind them.

"What the hell do we do with a kid?" Dipper heard Eyepatch sigh on the other side of the thick door. He almost smirked at the usefulness of enhanced hearing, but thought better of it when he remembered the 'inconspicuous' camera in the corner.

"He's too suspicious to let go." Romanoff said, sounding frustrated. "But we can't keep him locked up. If he's really dangerous, that will only result in a hatred against us, and if he's not there's no reason to."

Dipper found himself nodding along with her reasoning. He was curious what they were going to do about that. A moment of silence fell, before Eyepatch spoke again. "We could offer him a job."

He presumed Romanoff shook her head. "He couldn't make it as a Shield agent."

Dipper felt like he should feel offended at that.

"We can't keep him, and we can't let him go." Eyepatch summed up. A moment of silence, then, knowingly, "So we need someone with a big place, a lot of time on their hands, and the ability to defend themself and contain a potential threat."

Dipper could basically feel the grin on Romanoff's face as she responded. "Stark will _love_ being a parent."


	3. Towering

Agent Romanoff sighed as she signed another sheet and put it on top of the ever-growing pile. She was made for fieldwork, not paperwork, but this had to be done. And at least some of it was legal information involving the boy in the lower level cells.

Natasha frowned as she thought back to Alcor. At first she had thought he was a mutant with the power to open portals, but now she wasn't so sure. Something didn't add up. The grin that was just a little too wide, the teeth that seemed too sharp one moment and normal the next, there was something off about him, and the fact that she didn't know what frustrated her to no end.

It had only been five hours since he'd appeared in the middle of the bridge out of a giant colorful portal, and the whole last of those hours was spent convincing Stark that he wanted a teenager into his tower. Eventually she'd had to tell him about where he came from and her Fury's suspicions, and call in a bunch of favors before he finally, grudgingly agreed. She even got him to take him today already.

Alcor was being led to a jet right about now, if everything was going as planned. She remembered the fearful look in his eyes when he confessed he ran away from something. Was that genuine?

She shook her head when she caught herself signing her desk, too absorbed in her thoughts to notice she'd gotten through her current stack. That was it, she decided while she took another half stack from the side of her desk. She was going to visit the Avengers tower tomorrow and she was going to find out what was going on with that kid no matter how long it took.

 **~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~**

Alcor was grinning widely as he stepped off the ramp onto the platform. Far, far below him he could see the ever busy city of New York, dotted with cars and crowded with buildings. The open space around him was perfect and he almost just wanted to materialize his wings and fly away, but he reasoned he could always do that later.

He lifted his eyes to the opening into the tower, where a man with a big prescence and bigger sunglasses opened his arms in a grand gesture as he caught Alcor's gaze. "Welcome to the Avengers Tower! Hope you'll feel at home, kid."

He bounced over to the dark haired man called Anthony Stark, although he preferred Tony from what Alcor skimmed of his thoughts, an eager grin on his face. He couldn't wait to find out all the new experiences this universe had to offer, now that he'd been let out of that dull cell.

See, the thing that mattered to him most were experiences. He knew lots of things, but the only way to really revel in the joys of the multiverse was to experience the joys of the multiverse.

"I'm Tony Stark, genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist. Call me Tony." Alcor took Tony's hand, noticing how despite his arrogant attitude he was generally a good guy. He wasn't intentionally reading the man's mind, that would be an invasion of privacy that Mabel had taught him was bad, but he couldn't help but automatically skim people's outer thoughts and feelings when he met them.

"I'm Alcor." He introduced himself, smile slipping a bit at the thought of his sister, before widening again as he let go of the other's hand. "I'm glad to be here!"

That was the right response, right? It seemed to be, as Tony nodded with not-quite-a-smile on his face. Dipper gave a mental grimace as he realized he'd be walking on eggshells during conversations for a while.

"Come in, and I'll show you around." Tony proposed.

Alcor followed him off the platform, barely noticing the jet taking off again behind them.

"Jarvis!" Tony called as soon as they walked in, still looking in front of him, where nobody was standing. Dipper frowned a bit. Was he missing something? "Introduce yourself to Alcor."

Despite the fact that it wasn't a question, it didn't feel like a command either, which surprised Dipper a bit with this man. He finally realized who Tony had been talking to when a voice came from the ceiling. "Nice to meet you, Mister Daniels. I'm Jarvis."

Ah, an artificial intelligence. Just A Really Very Intelligent System was his full name, so JARVIS then, not Jarvis.

Daniels was the name they'd put on the official papers after Dipper made it clear that Alcor was his only name. He may or may not have given the impression that whatever was before the portal had never given him a last name. Unintentionally, of course.

Alcor followed Tony as the letter led him around the upper floors of the tower. The kitchen, main lounge, the room he'd be pretending to sleep in ("Incredibly boring, but Natasha banned from decoration duty," Tony had said flippantly,) and there was a vague point towards the man's workshop and a warning that Alcor might accidentally get barbecued extra spicy if he tried to go down there.

Despite the man's grandiose act, Dipper could tell he really just wanted to get back to whatever he was doing, and he wasn't paying Dipper much attention. The sheer uninterest made it clear this was the visitor's tour. Tony viewed him as just another visitor who would go away shortly and become someone else's problem.

That was fine by Dipper, honestly. He could just explore the new world on his own and move on to the next if it wasn't interesting enough.

"Oh, and also," Tony interrupted his own stream of words which Dipper had been blocking out to think to inform him, "You're supposed to stay in the tower unless I come with you outside. Blah blah blah security."

That might be a complication. Tony obviously wasn't going outside anytime soon judging by his unhealthly pale skin and surface thoughts, so it was either break the rules and make the humans distrust him, or go through the effort of not getting caught.

Well, he wasn't that lazy, Dipper decided, as he shrugged in Tony's direction. The man had already turned back around, not waiting for his reaction. He'd decided he wanted to live a normal life, so he was going to live a normal life. As normal as he could manage.

"Well, I'm going back to work." Tony decided that Alcor- no, Dipper, he had to keep calling himself that, now that no one else did- had seen enough of the tower. "If you need anything, just ask Jarvis."

Dipper nodded silently, before Mabel's voice resounded in his head. _Speak out when you want someone to hear you, Dip-dop._ Dipper cleared his throat quietly and corrected himself with a soft, "Yeah, sure." Tony didn't seem to care. He was soon left alone in the big, open living room.

Dipper's smile had slipped off his face slightly, but he ignored it in favor of ransacking the kitchen for sweet things, which there were thankfully plenty of. Although Dipper didn't see any real, healthy food, which made him worry slightly about Tony's eating habits. If the guy died from starvation, would they manage to blame Alcor somehow?

He shrugged it off for now, munching on some jelly beans. He'd just make sure Tony wouldn't die. It was an unspoken deal, in exchange for the food and housing.

An unspoken deal.. Dipper looked to the side to ask Mabel if it was okay to make an unspoken deal if the unspoken part only benefitted the human, and let the words die on his tongue when the only thing next to him was empty space.

Alcor numbly popped a few more jelly beans into his mouth. He'd learn to live without her, no matter how much he didn't want to.


End file.
